Five Stages of Inconvenience

While discussing "An InconvenientTruth" and the topics it raises, I've found many people (i too) traverse these five Stages of Inconvenience:

Denial

The Greenland ice shelf cares not for anyone's denial. If one is still denying the fact of global climate change driven by human generated carbon, then reason is not the problem.

If Thomas Paine was right, ("Time makes more converts than reason") then their time simply has not come.

"We're F**ked"

A classic polar flip. Easy to move through except for end stage pessimists and cynics. Yes, the problem is bigger, by magnitudes, than anything we've faced... ever.

Hope matters. Keep talking.

"I won't live to see that..."

I've never had to face death (except in the sense that my life expectancy is now 9,236 days and counting) and I have the deepest respect for those of us living with death on our shoulder. Speaking with Elders about further bright futures can be cruel - escaping from darker futures may be enticing.

The idea that the tribulations lie in some distant future is a matter of probability The sudden breakup of the Larsen B Antarctic ice shelf in 2002 shows us how poorly we understand the game board upon which we play, and how quickly massive things can happen.

Agedness is not a good foundation to support disengagement, inaction and a return to the Denial stage.

Whelmed

Even with a positive attitude, hope and creativity, facing the insurmountable is whelming. Becoming overwhelmed can lead to damage, and is not recommended.

Break it down. Just take a little piece right now. You're not alone in this.

What I do doesn't matter

A sad byproduct of Individualism that undermines so much of our social and civic fabric.

Modeling matters. We primates shape ourselves through mimicing the models around us.

Be a model. You won't be able to see or experience the immediate effect, but you can be confident someone is looking for you even if they don't know it yet.